UK doctors vote for partial cigarette sales ban

The British Medical Association voted on Tuesday in favor of a lifelong ban on cigarette sales to those born after 2000, another step toward the group's ultimate goal of a tobacco-free society by 2035.

Following the vote at the group's annual representatives meeting, the doctors union will now turn to lobbying the British government to enact such a ban, The Guardian reported. The same group has already succeeded in getting smoking banned in public places and in cars carrying children throughout the U.K., according to the publication.

The argument behind the age-based ban is that "smoking is not a rational, informed choice of adulthood," Tim Crocker-Buque, a specialist registrar in public health medicine and the person who proposed the motion, told The Guardian. This measure would "break the cycle of children starting to smoke" and take an important step toward the association's ultimate goal of a country without tobacco products, Sheila Hollins, the chair of the association's board of science, told The Guardian.

The British Medical Association's vote was not unanimous, however, and several doctors spoke out against the proposal. One even warned that pushing for a ban of this magnitude may "lead to ridicule of the profession," according to The Guardian. The publication also cited opposition to the vote from the smokers' group Forest and the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, both of which reportedly argued in favor of enforcing existing laws against children smoking.